


A Word Once Spoken

by staringatstars



Category: The Exorcist (TV)
Genre: Demonic Possession, Self-Sacrifice, Spoilers for 02.07, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 09:16:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12767826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staringatstars/pseuds/staringatstars
Summary: The power of mortals tires without food, without sleep. Sometimes, Tomas wonders if Marcus isn't something else entirely.





	A Word Once Spoken

He tastes fire on his oil slick tongue, chokes on the night in his eyes. There is ice on his skin, ice in his skin, ice is his skin, and the bindings around his wrists _burn_. 

Marcus is hurting him. Marcus is hurting. 

God loves him. 

God abandoned them. 

Hell is empty. The devils are here. 

Tomas feels the demon wrap its claws around his head, his heart, his mind. There are sores on his back and arms and legs from an indeterminate amount of time spent shackled to a bed. He hates with a hatred that isn’t his, loves with everything that’s left. 

When did it start? He didn’t remember agreeing to this. He wouldn’t betray Marcus like that, wouldn’t leave him to fight the monsters alone. They were partners. Friends. They were somewhere between the transient and eternity, riding the borderline and keeping each other steady when the world started tipping. 

A feverish gleam lights up the dark, the scalding glow of Marcus’ fatigue and fury-glazed eyes as he flips through the bible with a voice that rings with power, and from the backseat of his own body, Tomas can’t help but wonder how this man ever once doubted God’s grace when his every cell sang with it. His is the quiet before the lightning strike, the intensity of a hurricane’s lull. 

Though Tomas cannot fight at his side, he is not alone. God is with him in the silence. It is with a strange sense of relief and discontentment that Tomas realizes the former priest doesn’t need him. And yet the man obviously hasn’t shaved in days, whispers the prayers like it is his own life and heart and soul on the line. He fights through the younger priest’s convulsions, through malice and vitriol spewed in the face of his unconditional love, through teeth sinking into his flesh and nails, blackened with decay, raking his unguarded cheeks. Though he tires he never falters, and if Tomas’ body were his own, he is certain his vision would be blurred with the strength of the emotion welling within at the sight of his enduring struggle.

Why go so far to save him? A failure of a priest who fell to the demon’s siren call? He wasn’t worth it. There were others in need of God’s salvation. Innocents tangled in dark machinations, not fools who wandered blindly yet willingly into damnation, as he had. Determined to tell Marcus to give up on him, Tomas fought for control, forcing his mouth to open in time to feel sour bile splash over his swollen tongue. 

Desperation and hope danced together across the former priest’s weathered features as he rushed to undo his shackles in time to turn him over, and through his own revulsion, Tomas managed to croak through a throat turned raw from screaming, “Leave me, Marcus. I am of… no use to you now.” There is poison in him. And he knows enough about taint to understand and accept that it is irreversible. Even if he were to be rescued from this, with the demon cast out, he would never be the same. 

As selfish as it was, one of the perks of having every sin and impure thought thrown back at him with barbed edges was that little was hidden, and so Tomas knew with certainty that he would rather die than live a long and satisfying life without Marcus by his side. 

The silence following his declaration stretched and warped, a breathing, thinking thing, until finally the former priest growled, “Don’t try that self-sacrificial shite with me, Tomas. You _need_ me.” Though the words came out harsh, strained, the concern and frustration in his gaze was impossible to miss. Beyond that, though, was a palpable relief that diffused from him, spreading through the dimly lit bedroom like a fine mist. “There are other bloody exorcists.” 

True, there were. Bennet could replace them if he wished, yet he had chosen Marcus, an excommunicated priest, for this mission. Because he was dogged. Indomitable. Because unlike Tomas, he would not fall. 

And Tomas refused to pull him down. 

As though reading the unhappy frown curving the ends of his partner’s chapped lips, Marcus leveled him with a hard glare. “So help me, if you try to tell me this is God’s plan, I’ll punch you on the schnoz so hard you’ll smell your own arse.” An honest laugh tickled Tomas’ throat at the threat, though it came out in the form of a high-pitched cackle. Horrified, he watched the amusement flee from Marcus’ face as the salty and thick taste of blood filled his mouth.

 

_Andrew Kim, father of four, with Harper well on her way to being his fifth, had his nail pressed deep into the flesh of Marcus’ jugular, enough to draw a steady stream of blood. Black eyes stared challengingly at Tomas, who could only stand with a bible in one hand and a rosary in the other, the words of power rendered silent by the threat to the former priest’s life._

_“Do it, Tomas,” Marcus said with his characteristic willingness to spit in the face of evil. “Forget about me and save him.”_

_“Utter one wrong word, young cub, and you’ll be cleaning your friend off the walls for days.” The young priest had seen the demon in so many skins, twisting affection into resentment, fondness into envy throughout hundreds if not thousands of years. Who were they to contend with such forces? Who was he to think that he could?_

_Yet one look at Marcus, the grizzled veteran that once turned a lake into holy water, still determined, still so sure that they would win, and he finds a new place for faith._

_Ignoring the confusion furrowing the former priest’s brow, Tomas lowered his rosary, his bible, set aside his holy water, and spoke a word._

**Author's Note:**

> This fandom really could use more love, because this show is honestly amazing. 
> 
> I think it was after the very first episode I saw that I started thinking about Tomas becoming possessed, since his film counterpart definitely was, but seeing where he is now, it doesn't seem as likely. But what if a demon managed to get the drop on Marcus? How far would he go to save him? How far would they go to save each other?
> 
> My guess?
> 
> Until the end.


End file.
